macrumors bot

However, Jobs isn't the only employee at Apple with a short fuse. A profile in The Informationstudies Kim Vorrath, Apple's vice president in charge of "program management" for both iOS and OS X. She supervises Apple's thorough testing process to discover bugs and is the final arbiter of deadlines to ensure that software updates come out on time.

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One story in particular, relayed by Business Insider, tells of Vorrath's displeasure when she found out a co-worker was leaving work early before the launch of the first iPhone in 2007.

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Ms. Vorrath, who has worked on all seven iOS releases, generally operates by asking lots of questions of engineers, sticking to the facts and getting them to explain in plain English why a particular feature should be included in the operating system. She's easy to get along with, say former colleagues, who recall playfully mocking her 1990s feathered hairstyle and late 1980s fashion sense. But she isn't known for chitchat and has been known to "blow up" on occasion when people miss deadlines or make excuses, colleagues say.

During a tense time before the first release of iOS software in 2007, Ms. Vorrath grew irate when a colleague was heading home early before another marathon weekend meeting. She slammed her office door so hard that the door knob broke, and she locked herself in. Mr. Forstall grabbed a baseball bat to try to break her out, people who worked at Apple at the time recall.

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The Information says Vorrath has been working at Apple since 1987, starting as an intern and eventually becoming chief of staff for Scott Forstall. Now, she is said to be working directly beneath Apple executive Craig Federighi, who is in charge of Apple's software engineering teams.

Thanks for that link--it mentions the same story, but is phrased much more clearly as to what happened and why there was a baseball bat involved:

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A product manager slammed the door to her office so hard that the handle bent and locked her in; it took colleagues more than an hour and some well-placed whacks with an aluminum bat to free her.

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As worded in the quote on the MR post, it sounds like she intentionally locked herself in and Forestall took up a baseball bat to violently get her out of her office. The Wired story, however, makes it clear that the temper part was her slamming the door so hard that it broke the handle, which trapped her in her own office. The baseball bat was to free her, not force her out. Which makes it clear that, yes, she has a temper, but she's not nuts.

Compare to:

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She slammed her office door so hard that the door knob broke, and she locked herself in. Mr. Forstall grabbed a baseball bat to try to break her out, people who worked at Apple at the time recall.

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It's amazing how much difference the phrasing can make in the way a story is interpreted. While the second quote is technically true, by saying "and she locked herself in" rather than "locking her in" or "trapping her in the room", it leaves it open to wild misinterpretation of what was going on.

macrumors G5

Who gets to yell at her? If she's responsible for testing, I'd say quite a few things have gotten past her... And yet she's not the one grabbing headlines on the tech sites as being remotely responsible.

macrumors newbie

Just pointing out that this occurred in 2007... What year is this? (It's 2014. Just pointing that out in case you didn't realize.) Also, what's YOUR job? Maybe uneducated college student? Unemployed "computer programmer"? I think you might be doing something wrong in your life...you're not as enough of a "whiny little ass"... Or many too much of one.

macrumors 65816

Ms. Vorrath, who has worked on all seven iOS releases, generally operates by asking lots of questions of engineers, sticking to the facts and getting them to explain in plain English why a particular feature should be included in the operating system.

macrumors 65816

Just pointing out that this occurred in 2007... What year is this? (It's 2014. Just pointing that out in case you didn't realize.) Also, what's YOUR job? Maybe uneducated college student? Unemployed "computer programmer"? I think you might be doing something wrong in your life...you're not as enough of a "whiny little ass"... Or many too much of one.

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My job has nothing to do with it. Also quite to the contrary, if I'm in college, I am getting "educated." I'm liking the personal insults I'm receiving based off of my opinion on this. Also the year it happened has nothing to do with it as I didn't hear about it until now. Unless she was a 12 year old 7 years ago, and then went through puberty, I hardly doubt it makes a difference.

In my opinion, slamming the door and locking yourself in the room because you are angry seems like something a 16 year old would do when told by their parents they can't hang out with friends due to bad grades. It doesn't seem like the behavior of a vice president at Apple. People get angry; it happens. How you deal with it shows your maturity.

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